The state of being poor; lack of the means of providing material needs…
(n.)
Deficiency in amount; scantiness:“the poverty of feeling that reduced…
(n.)
Unproductiveness; infertility: the poverty of the soil.
Dictionary.com · The American Heritage® Dictionary
|| How does the United States measure poverty? The United States determines the official poverty rate using poverty thresholds that are issued each year by the Census Bureau. The thresholds represent the annual amount of cash income minimally required to support families of various sizes. The methodology for calculating the thresholds was established in the mid-1960s and has not changed in the intervening years. The thresholds are updated annually to account for inflation. A family is counted as poor if its pretax money income is below its poverty threshold. Money income does not include noncash benefits such as public housing, Medicaid, employer-provided health insurance and food stamps. A sampling of the poverty thresholds for 2008 is included in the table below. A complete list can be found on the Census Bureau's website (www.census.gov).
2007 Poverty Thresholds, Selected Family Types
Single Individual
Under 65 years
$ 11,201
65 years & older
$ 10,326
Single Parent
One child
$ 14,840
Two children
$ 17,346
Two Adults
No children
$ 14,417
One child
$ 17,330
Two children
$ 21,834
Three children
$ 25,694
The 2009 Poverty Guidelines for the
48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia
Persons in family
Poverty guideline
1
$10,830
2
14,570
3
18,310
4
22,050
5
25,790
6
29,530
7
33,270
8
37,010
For families with more than 8 persons, add $3,740 for each additional person.
Note: Blank cells indicate that data are not available.
Updated on June 8, 2009
N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610 www.ncruralcenter.org
Poverty in North Carolina
Poverty remained high even after a decade of strong economic growth.
After big declines during the sixties and seventies, poverty remains high in rural North Carolina. Even the dramatic economic growth during the nineties was not enough to have a significant impact. The number of rural North Carolinians living in poverty increased during the 1990s by nearly 50,000, and the total number of rural people in poverty is now more than 560,000.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
Poverty in the Coastal region remains high.
Twenty-three counties in North Carolina have poverty rates over 18 percent. All of these counties are rural, and 19 of them are located in the Coastal Plain region. Of the 23 counties that currently have poverty rates over 18 percent, 20 have ³persistent² poverty. The rates in these counties have been above 18 percent since the U.S. started collecting data on poverty in 1960.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
Child poverty rates are especially disturbing.
In rural North Carolina, the poverty rate for children is 45 percent higher than urban areas. In 2000, 181,682 rural children were growing up in poverty, an increase of 12,668 over the 1990s. In six rural counties, the child poverty rate was above 30 percent.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
The child poverty rate in the Northeast is over twice the rate in the Charlotte region.
In the Northeast, 26 percent of children live in poverty compared to 12 percent in the Charlotte region. The child poverty rate in the East and Southeast is above 20 percent.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
About half of those living in poverty are white, but poverty rates are much higher for blacks and other minorities.
Of the more than 560,000 rural people living in poverty, 290,000 are white. However, the poverty rate for rural blacks, 27 percent, is more than 1.5 times greater than the rate for rural whites. In 10 Coastal Plain counties, more than a third of blacks live in poverty. The poverty rate for American Indians is 22 percent and for Hispanics, 28 percent.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
Poverty rates increase after recession
The poverty rate in North Carolina increased from the 2000 level of 12.3 percent to 15.0 percent for 2002-2003. The recession and increasing unemployment rates in North Carolina are a likely cause of the increase in poverty. North Carolina had the third highest increase in poverty in 2002-2003 and was one of only 7 states that experienced and increase.
Source: US Bureau of the Census
Updated on January 6, 2006
N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610 www.ncruralcenter.org
The poverty line was first established in 1964 by the federal government as a measure of 'need'. The measure was based on the assumption that a poor family spends one-third of their budget on food. The measure is an estimate of the cost of an "economy food plan," essentially how much food is required for temporary use, and then multiplying this cost by three. The poverty level is readjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index to account for inflation, but the logic and assumptions for the estimate have remained the same since 1964. The official poverty line is the same across the 48 contiguous states (Hawaii and Alaska have different measures). In 2009 the poverty line for a family of four is $22,050. In 2000, the poverty line for a family of four was $17,050. Critics of the poverty line point-out that some of the assumptions used to create the measure are outdated. Today, other costs take up larger portions of families' budgets: for example, housing costs; transportation costs; health insurance and medical costs; and childcare to name a few. Also the measure ignores the wide regional variation in the cost of living. Many social scientists argue that if current social and economic considerations were part of the assumptions behind the logic of the poverty measure, the official poverty line would be at least 50% higher than the current measure: the nation's gauge of poverty has worn out. Retrieved from http://www.povertyeast.org What is poverty?
"…more than a third of North Carolina families struggle to pay for their most basic needs. This is not about how nice a car they can buy. It is about how to afford child care… It is about how to find, much less afford, a two-bedroom apartment for a family of four. It is about choosing between shoes and food, a visit to the doctor and paying the rent. In short, these families do not earn a living income. To add a final measure of insult to injury, they are working more than ever before and their real average wages are lower than they were twenty years ago."
Working Hard is Not Enough
Poverty is defined as a standard of living that falls below the basic, minimum requirements to sustain an adequate diet, adequate housing and adequate health. It is the struggle to meet these basic requirements. Poverty implies not only the lack of an adequate income to meet these minimum requirements, but also the lack of assets that create wealth. Deprivation of resources can be life threatening.
Leslie Hossfeld, University of North Carolina Wilmington //HossfeldL@uncw.edu// Certain categories of people are at greater risk of being in poverty than others. Children, non-whites and women are disproportionately represented in the category of 'officially poor'.
According to 2008 Census estimates, 15% of North Carolina's population had an incomes below the poverty level. Twenty percent of related children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 12 percent of people 65 years old and over. Eleven percent of all families and 32 percent of families with a female householder and no husband present had incomes below the poverty level. Decennial 2000 Census data reports that 19.1% of related children under 18 live in poverty; add race and 29.9% of African American related children under 18 in North Carolina live in poverty; 24.8% of Native American related children under 18 in North Carolina live in poverty; and 9.1% of white related children under 18 live in poverty. Wealth and poverty are not distributed equally. American Community Survey Census 2008 data estimates show that 11% of North Carolina families have incomes below the poverty level and that 27% households in North Carolina earn less than $25,000 a year. Examining decennial Census data (2000), we see that 5.6% of white families have incomes below the poverty level, while 19.9% of African American families have incomes below the poverty level. Across the state of North Carolina and across the nation, the patterns of poverty remain the same: non-whites have higher rates of poverty than whites; children under 18 have higher rates of poverty than other age categories; and the feminization of poverty means that women represent an increasing proportion of the poor.
||
How does the United States measure poverty?
The United States determines the official poverty rate using poverty thresholds that are issued each year by the Census Bureau. The thresholds represent the annual amount of cash income minimally required to support families of various sizes.
The methodology for calculating the thresholds was established in the mid-1960s and has not changed in the intervening years. The thresholds are updated annually to account for inflation.
A family is counted as poor if its pretax money income is below its poverty threshold. Money income does not include noncash benefits such as public housing, Medicaid, employer-provided health insurance and food stamps.
A sampling of the poverty thresholds for 2008 is included in the table below. A complete list can be found on the Census Bureau's website (www.census.gov).
2007 Poverty Thresholds, Selected Family Types
48 Contiguous States and the District of Columbia
http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml
Note: Blank cells indicate that data are not available.
Updated on June 8, 2009
N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610
www.ncruralcenter.org
Poverty in North Carolina
Poverty remained high even after a decade of strong economic growth.
After big declines during the sixties and seventies, poverty remains high in rural North Carolina. Even the dramatic economic growth during the nineties was not enough to have a significant impact. The number of rural North Carolinians living in poverty increased during the 1990s by nearly 50,000, and the total number of rural people in poverty is now more than 560,000.Source: US Bureau of the Census
Poverty in the Coastal region remains high.
Twenty-three counties in North Carolina have poverty rates over 18 percent. All of these counties are rural, and 19 of them are located in the Coastal Plain region. Of the 23 counties that currently have poverty rates over 18 percent, 20 have ³persistent² poverty. The rates in these counties have been above 18 percent since the U.S. started collecting data on poverty in 1960.Source: US Bureau of the Census
Child poverty rates are especially disturbing.
In rural North Carolina, the poverty rate for children is 45 percent higher than urban areas. In 2000, 181,682 rural children were growing up in poverty, an increase of 12,668 over the 1990s. In six rural counties, the child poverty rate was above 30 percent.Source: US Bureau of the Census
The child poverty rate in the Northeast is over twice the rate in the Charlotte region.
In the Northeast, 26 percent of children live in poverty compared to 12 percent in the Charlotte region. The child poverty rate in the East and Southeast is above 20 percent.Source: US Bureau of the Census
About half of those living in poverty are white, but poverty rates are much higher for blacks and other minorities.
Of the more than 560,000 rural people living in poverty, 290,000 are white. However, the poverty rate for rural blacks, 27 percent, is more than 1.5 times greater than the rate for rural whites. In 10 Coastal Plain counties, more than a third of blacks live in poverty. The poverty rate for American Indians is 22 percent and for Hispanics, 28 percent.Source: US Bureau of the Census
Poverty rates increase after recession
The poverty rate in North Carolina increased from the 2000 level of 12.3 percent to 15.0 percent for 2002-2003. The recession and increasing unemployment rates in North Carolina are a likely cause of the increase in poverty. North Carolina had the third highest increase in poverty in 2002-2003 and was one of only 7 states that experienced and increase.Source: US Bureau of the Census
N.C. Rural Economic Development Center
4021 Carya Drive, Raleigh, NC 27610
www.ncruralcenter.org
The poverty line was first established in 1964 by the federal government as a measure of 'need'. The measure was based on the assumption that a poor family spends one-third of their budget on food. The measure is an estimate of the cost of an "economy food plan," essentially how much food is required for temporary use, and then multiplying this cost by three. The poverty level is readjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index to account for inflation, but the logic and assumptions for the estimate have remained the same since 1964. The official poverty line is the same across the 48 contiguous states (Hawaii and Alaska have different measures). In 2009 the poverty line for a family of four is $22,050. In 2000, the poverty line for a family of four was $17,050.
Critics of the poverty line point-out that some of the assumptions used to create the measure are outdated. Today, other costs take up larger portions of families' budgets: for example, housing costs; transportation costs; health insurance and medical costs; and childcare to name a few. Also the measure ignores the wide regional variation in the cost of living. Many social scientists argue that if current social and economic considerations were part of the assumptions behind the logic of the poverty measure, the official poverty line would be at least 50% higher than the current measure: the nation's gauge of poverty has worn out.
Retrieved from http://www.povertyeast.org
What is poverty?
Working Hard is Not Enough
Poverty is defined as a standard of living that falls below the basic, minimum requirements to sustain an adequate diet, adequate housing and adequate health. It is the struggle to meet these basic requirements. Poverty implies not only the lack of an adequate income to meet these minimum requirements, but also the lack of assets that create wealth. Deprivation of resources can be life threatening.
Retrieved from http://www.povertyeast.org
Who are the poor?
Certain categories of people are at greater risk of being in poverty than others. Children, non-whites and women are disproportionately represented in the category of 'officially poor'.
According to 2008 Census estimates, 15% of North Carolina's population had an incomes below the poverty level. Twenty percent of related children under 18 were below the poverty level, compared with 12 percent of people 65 years old and over. Eleven percent of all families and 32 percent of families with a female householder and no husband present had incomes below the poverty level.
Decennial 2000 Census data reports that 19.1% of related children under 18 live in poverty; add race and 29.9% of African American related children under 18 in North Carolina live in poverty; 24.8% of Native American related children under 18 in North Carolina live in poverty; and 9.1% of white related children under 18 live in poverty. Wealth and poverty are not distributed equally.
American Community Survey Census 2008 data estimates show that 11% of North Carolina families have incomes below the poverty level and that 27% households in North Carolina earn less than $25,000 a year. Examining decennial Census data (2000), we see that 5.6% of white families have incomes below the poverty level, while 19.9% of African American families have incomes below the poverty level. Across the state of North Carolina and across the nation, the patterns of poverty remain the same: non-whites have higher rates of poverty than whites; children under 18 have higher rates of poverty than other age categories; and the feminization of poverty means that women represent an increasing proportion of the poor.
North Carolina Poverty